Twelve years ago, Andy and Anya Gupta designed and built Aura as a private residence — a secluded farm near Chandigarh where they could live blissfully and make things. Anya built a pottery studio. They planted an organic kitchen garden. They adopted dogs. Then, in February 2023, they opened two rooms to guests. The Phoenix room has large picture windows. The Kipling room has a pool view. The dogs are always somewhere nearby. Come, be with us.
There is a particular kind of home that takes a decade to get right — where every room has earned its character through years of lived-in refinement, where the garden has achieved the particular depth that only comes from sustained attention, where the objects and the spaces around them have settled into a relationship that no amount of interior design can manufacture. Aura Life near Chandigarh is this kind of home. Andy and Anya Gupta built it twelve years ago as a private residence, and it shows: this is not a homestay that was designed for guests. It is a home that was designed for living, opened to guests because what they had built was genuinely worth sharing.
Anya and Andy
Anya Gupta is the creative force behind Aura Life’s two faces. She is the head gardener — the person who designed and tends the organic kitchen garden of over 25 herbs and the fruit orchard that supplies the kitchen. She is the ceramicist — whose Aura Life brand produces handmade ceramic art collectibles, architectural ceramics for boutique hotels and private residences, and the beautiful objects that fill the homestay’s interiors. She is the experience curator, the pottery studio instructor, and the person whose aesthetic intelligence is visible in every corner of the property.
Andy is the chief storyteller and creative head — the other half of the household that, in twelve years, has made this farm into something worth staying in. Together, they describe themselves as people who love meeting and spending time with guests: the evening by the fire over wine and cheese, exchanging stories, getting to know the people who chose to come here. This is not a managed property with remote owners. Andy and Anya live here. The dogs live here. The kitchen garden grows outside the kitchen window.
The Property
Aura Life spreads across 3 acres of a secluded farm near Chandigarh — wooded, gardened, and private in the way that only properties with space and intention achieve. A walking path around the entire periphery takes guests through the fruit orchard, the organic kitchen garden, two ponds, the potter’s studio villa, and a meditation circle. Hammocks are scattered through the grounds. Picnic spots exist. The outdoors here is not a backdrop but a primary activity.
The residence is well-lit, tastefully designed, and rustic — a word that carries no apology here but describes a warmth of material and aesthetic that modern spaces rarely achieve. Art, ceramics, lights, and living spaces have been put together with love and soul, in Anya and Andy’s own words, and guests are invited to enjoy this space as their own.
The infinity pool provides cool relief in the Punjab summers — a place for books and beer, for long afternoons with no other agenda. In the winters, evenings gather around the fire: wine and cheese, stories, the particular pleasure of a warm interior when the farm is cold outside.
The Two Rooms
There are two guest rooms, each with its own distinct character.
The Phoenix Room is a private double occupancy bedroom with two large picture windows and a beautiful garden view. The name carries both the mythological resonance of transformation and the aesthetic identity of Anya’s ceramics collection — the Phoenix is one of the signature ceramic series at Aura Life. The room is described as mysterious, magical, and elegant: the perfect room for time off, for guests who want the full immersion of the garden view from their bed.
The Kipling Room is a private double occupancy bedroom with a large picture window and a stunning pool view. It is described as calming and nostalgic — best suited to creatives and writers, and the Kipling reference does its quiet work: this is a room for people who read, who think, who want the particular inspiration of a pool view at altitude in the Punjab countryside.
Both rooms offer complete privacy. The property is exclusively for guests — the sense of having a beautiful, well-curated home entirely to yourself, with your hosts present but never intrusive.
The Pottery Studio
The pottery studio at Aura Life is one of the most distinctive features of any homestay near Chandigarh. Anya’s practice as a ceramicist is not a hobby but a professional discipline — the Aura Life brand supplies hand-thrown ceramics to boutique hotels and private residences worldwide, and the studio is a working creative space. Guests are offered a pottery workshop or introduction to ceramics conducted by the studio instructor: a hands-on, properly taught engagement with clay that gives guests not just a souvenir experience but a genuine introduction to the material.
For those who have never worked with clay, this is the experience that makes the Aura Life stay memorable in a way that no beach or mountain view can replicate — the specific, embodied pleasure of making something with your hands in a studio equipped for it.
The Kitchen Garden and the Food
Meals at Aura Life are home-cooked, simple, nutritious, and delicious — prepared using as many ingredients as possible from the organic kitchen garden and orchard. The kitchen garden of over 25 different herbs is, in Anya and Andy’s own description, a treat for the senses: the smell of fresh herbs in the Punjab morning, the particular flavour of vegetables that have not left the garden before arriving on the plate, the organic cycle of a kitchen that cooks what it grows.
This is farm-to-table not as a marketing claim but as the practical reality of a household that has been doing it for twelve years. The meals are not elaborate. They are excellent in the way that simple food cooked from good ingredients always is.
The Dogs
Fifi, Bosch, Bono, and Ella — the four resident dogs of Aura Life — are companions for walks through the orchard, time on the hammocks, afternoons in the studio, and any other activity that seems to benefit from canine participation. They are, in the consistent testimony of guests, an essential part of the Aura Life experience: the completion of a farm that would feel incomplete without them.
Why It Stays With You
Guests describe Aura Life as the best weekend getaway, as the one place you should go to unwind, as a beautiful, cosy, and sustainable space that makes you want to return. What these descriptions have in common is not the pottery or the pool or the food individually but the sense of wholeness — of a home built over twelve years by two people who knew what they wanted and had the patience and skill to achieve it.
Andy and Anya opened Aura Life to guests in February 2023 not because they needed to but because what they had built was too good to keep entirely to themselves. The farm was designed for living. The living is available to guests two rooms at a time. Come, be with them.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Private farm near Chandigarh, Punjab (exact location shared on booking confirmation) Website: auralife.in/homestay Instagram: @auralife.in Booking: Via website (auralife.in/homestay) · Opened February 2023
Hosts: Andy (chief storyteller and creative head) and Anya Gupta (head gardener, ceramicist, experience curator) Ceramics brand: Aura Life — handmade ceramics, architectural ceramics for hotels and private residences worldwide
Property: 3 acres · Secluded private farm · Fruit orchard · Organic kitchen garden (25+ herbs) · Two ponds · Pottery studio villa · Meditation circle · Walking path around full periphery · Hammocks throughout
Rooms: 2 guest rooms — Phoenix Room: double occupancy · 2 large picture windows · garden view · mysterious, elegant — Kipling Room: double occupancy · large picture window · pool view · calm, nostalgic · best for writers and creatives
Facilities: Infinity pool · Fully equipped pottery studio · Organic kitchen garden · Orchard · Bonfire / fireplace (winters) · Hammocks · Meditation circle
Resident animals: Fifi, Bosch, Bono, Ella (dogs — walk companions, hammock partners, studio supervisors)
Meals: Home-cooked · Organic farm produce · 25+ fresh herbs from the garden · Simple, nutritious, delicious
Experiences: Pottery workshop with studio instructor · Garden walk · Fruit orchard · Pond-side relaxation · Meditation circle · Bonfire evenings (winter) · Pool afternoons (summer) · Photography in the grounds
Getting There — Chandigarh Airport (IGIA, Mohali): exact distance shared on booking — approximately 30–60 minutes depending on exact farm location — Chandigarh city: approximately 45–60 minutes by road — Delhi: approximately 5–6 hours by road or Shatabdi Express to Chandigarh (3.5 hours) then road transfer — Exact address and directions provided on booking confirmation — the farm is private and secluded, coordinate arrival timing with Andy or Anya in advance
Best Time to Visit: October to March for the most pleasant Punjab weather, bonfire evenings, and the garden at its most active · February to April for spring on the farm · May to August for pool afternoons when the Punjab summer makes the infinity pool the most important amenity on the property · The pottery studio is open year-round
